It was 2011 or so. It was Fulton County Illinois. My brother came up from Texas to shotgun hunt with me one of the short seasons, I think it was second and last shotgun season. We had taken a number of bow, shotgun, and muzzle loader bucks off this 160 acre farm since
2004 or so. Some really nice 150 class 9 and 10 pointers. One year, I had seen one B&C buck on adjoining land in the middle of a sleet storm with a rack that looked like an upside down sawhorse. It was sleeting and he was across the fence. He knew he was in the tall winter wheat.
I'll bet he was a 180-195 class deer. The farmer and the landowner killed one buck it took a winch to load in his truck.....big brute deer.
We had 13 ground blinds and tree stands set up around the ravines and field edges in the 160 that was about 100 acres tilled and planted and 60 acres of rough ravines and creeks.
We almost always still and stand hunted this farm. But at the end of second season with nothing to lose, we decided to walk and see what we could chase up. Its shotgun hunting only there. No rifles allowed except muzzle loaders.
I have to give some credit to my brother who was walking the ravine and sanctuary area of the farm we never went into much. He flushed out a big buck and doe that ran down the ravine towards where I was. The huge buck came charging straight at me, running full out tilt,
and I thought I was gonna be a bull fighter with no cape, or else gored so I took a frontal running chest shot at 30 yards with a 12 guage sabot in my Remington 870 rifled slug gun.
The big buck fell down upside down in the creek, all 4s in the air, and I thought oh boy I got'em. Then as I was patting myself on the back with both hands, that buck got up out of the creek and ran up the side of the ravine behind some thick saplings. My jaw was on the ground. How the heck did he do that? I knelt down close to the ground to get a sighting hole, and shot up through all the saplings, I could tell I hit the buck again, but it ran up and over the top of the ravine anyway!
Then when my brother came along in a minute or two we climbed up the ravine, and found a pool of blood where it lay down up there, but it was gone! No buck!
Then I looked way off across the other side of the field, maybe 300 yards, and saw it going into the woods. I knew it was hit twice and the last time pretty hard, so we backed off about 5 hours until dusk from our morning hunt and later that afternoon went into the woods where we had seen it headed.
It was there dead, 20 yards inside of the woods. My first shot had only grazed the side of its head and knocked it for a loop as it charged right at me. I was shooting for a brisket hit but he had his head down running hard and I had grazed him on the skull.
The second shot up through the saplings was the kill shot, it was in the neck/chest.
Anyway, he is a nice trophy. He still has some scraps of velvet hanging on his horns which is very unusual for that late in the year. He is maybe the closest I'll ever come to B&C. whitetail. But, most of all when I look at him, I will think of the hunt, this story, and the adventure.
"Old Mossrack", the one who almost got away.
2004 or so. Some really nice 150 class 9 and 10 pointers. One year, I had seen one B&C buck on adjoining land in the middle of a sleet storm with a rack that looked like an upside down sawhorse. It was sleeting and he was across the fence. He knew he was in the tall winter wheat.
I'll bet he was a 180-195 class deer. The farmer and the landowner killed one buck it took a winch to load in his truck.....big brute deer.
We had 13 ground blinds and tree stands set up around the ravines and field edges in the 160 that was about 100 acres tilled and planted and 60 acres of rough ravines and creeks.
We almost always still and stand hunted this farm. But at the end of second season with nothing to lose, we decided to walk and see what we could chase up. Its shotgun hunting only there. No rifles allowed except muzzle loaders.
I have to give some credit to my brother who was walking the ravine and sanctuary area of the farm we never went into much. He flushed out a big buck and doe that ran down the ravine towards where I was. The huge buck came charging straight at me, running full out tilt,
and I thought I was gonna be a bull fighter with no cape, or else gored so I took a frontal running chest shot at 30 yards with a 12 guage sabot in my Remington 870 rifled slug gun.
The big buck fell down upside down in the creek, all 4s in the air, and I thought oh boy I got'em. Then as I was patting myself on the back with both hands, that buck got up out of the creek and ran up the side of the ravine behind some thick saplings. My jaw was on the ground. How the heck did he do that? I knelt down close to the ground to get a sighting hole, and shot up through all the saplings, I could tell I hit the buck again, but it ran up and over the top of the ravine anyway!
Then when my brother came along in a minute or two we climbed up the ravine, and found a pool of blood where it lay down up there, but it was gone! No buck!
Then I looked way off across the other side of the field, maybe 300 yards, and saw it going into the woods. I knew it was hit twice and the last time pretty hard, so we backed off about 5 hours until dusk from our morning hunt and later that afternoon went into the woods where we had seen it headed.
It was there dead, 20 yards inside of the woods. My first shot had only grazed the side of its head and knocked it for a loop as it charged right at me. I was shooting for a brisket hit but he had his head down running hard and I had grazed him on the skull.
The second shot up through the saplings was the kill shot, it was in the neck/chest.
Anyway, he is a nice trophy. He still has some scraps of velvet hanging on his horns which is very unusual for that late in the year. He is maybe the closest I'll ever come to B&C. whitetail. But, most of all when I look at him, I will think of the hunt, this story, and the adventure.
"Old Mossrack", the one who almost got away.
